Toy Manufacturer Speeds Up Plans to Exit China | Business Matters (Mar. 14)

in today's business matters the shuttered Constitution gas pipeline project through New York could be revived president Trump discussed potentially bringing back the project with New York's Governor Kathy hul the P plan was cancelled in 2020 over opposition from politicians and environmentalists the firm behind the project Williams companies expressed appreciation for Trump support Williams said it was interested in the pipeline again provided there sufficient demand and support from Northeastern Governors including hok hok's office described the chat as productive and said no formal agreements or decisions were reached a 16-year extension for Montana's largest coal mine the Trump Administration has approved a plan to expand the Spring Creek mine in Big Horn County and extend its life this will allow nearly 40 million tons of coal to be mined over the next 16 years the expansion plan was blocked by a court order mandating a new Federal Environmental review which was published just before Trump took office call from the mine is used in power plants in Arizona Michigan Minnesota and Washington it's also used internationally in Japan and South Korea Montana's all Republican Congressional Delegation praise the move while IM mentalists Express continued concern the US Postal Service has added Doge to its latest mailing list Postmaster General Lewis dejoy told the Congress that he signed an agreement with the Department of government efficiency to help cut costs The Joy explained that the postal service has a broken business model that was not financially sustainable without critical changes the joy said some of its biggest problems include mismanagement of its retirement plans and restrictive regulations within the next month USPS plans to cut 10,000 jobs through through a voluntary retirement program one Congressman criticized the agreement claiming Doge would undermine and privatize the Postal Service how many unpaid told text messages have you gotten recently while Americans are apparently seeing a surge in this specific scam and Security Experts don't expect the text to end anytime soon in the last 3 months cyber security firm Trend de Micra have seen a 900% increase in searches for toll road scams thread research platform census says the techs are coming from China a senior researcher has identified 60,000 domains linked to the scams and he traced them to Chinese networks experts say it's about more than stealing a couple bucks it's about getting people's information that's why they recommend ignoring all the tax altogether and manufacturers are making moves out of China and fast the the maker of bradz and LOL surprise dolls plan to move 40% of its manufacturing into India Vietnam and Indonesia within 6 months that's a sped up timeline and a large chunk of its manufacturing that originally planned before President Trump's increased tariffs on China California based MGA entertainment noted that it may have to raise wholesale prices on china-made products Barbie maker Mattel also plans to close a factory in China by the end the year Us toy Industry Group Toy Association expects to see higher prices on shelves by back to school time the Relentless rise of gold has taken prices of the precious metal above the psychologically key $3,000 per ounce Mark for the first time take a look gold broke through the $3,000 an ounce milestone for the first time on Friday it built on a historic rally as trade tensions and us rate cut bets supercharge its appeal as a safe story of value gold is traditionally viewed as a safe haven investment during times of inflation or economic volatility Janet mu is head of market analysis at RBC breu and dolphin gold is really you know regarded as a hch as stagflation you know it works well in an inflationary environment uh low growth environment and also of course these geopolitical uh tensions that is happening at the moment so I do think investors part would favor gold uh going forward given this uncertain Outlook gold has risen 14% so far this year the surge has been driven by concerns over the impact of US president Donald Trump's tariffs and a recent Market selloff in stock markets one leading analyst said investors were searching for stability and finding it in Gold bets on monetary policy easing by the US Federal Reserve have also helped its performance this year the FED is widely expected to keep its Ben Mark overnight interest rate unchanged at its meeting on Wednesday a secret closed door hearing reported to be Apple's appeal over a back door to its encrypted cloud storage in the UK last month The Washington Post reported that Britain issued a technical capability notice to enable access to Apple's encrypted messages and photos in response Apple removed its security encryptions for cloud data for users Britain neither side has publicly confirmed the notice but today the BBC is reporting Apple's appeal of the order was heard in secret with no reporters allowed the BBC says the hearing was simply listed as an application in private at a court that reviews allegations of legal intrusions by public bodies your favorite acne treatment product may not be on the Shelf the FDA has announced six products being voluntarily recalled due to elev ated levels of a chemical linked to cancer they include products from proactive larash POS and Walgreens testing revealed that the products contained elevated levels of benzene which is found in crude oil and gasoline but the agency says a person's risk of developing cancer after using the product is very low the FDA is also stressing this recall is being conducted at the retail level consumers are not being told to take any action if they have the product at home Italian luxury brand Gucci has appointed Dema as its artistic director parent company kerning made the announcement in a much awaited move to revitalize the struggling label but some investors haven't taken the news positively as the new pick caus some controversy while working with Balenciaga andd sh Marshall has more Gucci is sending shock waves through the fashion industry after announcing demna as its creative director demna who goes only by his first name as of 2021 the struggling luxury house is seeking to generate some positive momentum but parent company caring is off to a rocky start after choosing the controversial creative director from Balenciaga caring owns both Gucci and Balenciaga caring lost around $3 billion in value on Friday after its stock closed down almost 11% in the European market investors weren't the only ones rattled by the decision fashion vloggers and bloggers online have been expressing both confusion and shock over the choice of demna as creative director possible reasons include a controversial 2022 ad campaign involving children holding teddy bear Handbags and wearing sexualized clothing which Denna later said was the wrong artistic choice and selling trash bags for $1,700 each and destroyed sneakers that arrived out of the box torn and frayed for $1,850 there's also a bit of a design contrast between balenciaga's darkness and Gucci's vibrant colors as controversial as demna is or has been let's take a look at why Gucci would go with such a risky decision balenciaga's Revenue quadrupled during DNA's Reign when demna started Balenciaga sales floated at around $350 million by 2022 sales were up to $2 billion Gucci may be trying to duplicate balenciaga's positive results and Gucci's stock has been on a bit of a downward slump since mid 2021 having a prolonged sales decline with revenues down 24% in the fourth quarter of 2024 so the risk is there for a potential marketing Scandal to drop the stock price even further or it could be at such a low point that it could go up so the question is whether bad publicity could still be good publicity for the company demna will show his final Baga cure collection in July before starting at Gucci sha Marshall and TD news and Dollywood is kicking off its 40th anniversary celebration so in light of that you know Dolly paton's popular theme park uh that's located in Tennessee's Great Smoky Mountains open to season passholders today and the general public can visit starting tomorrow to mark the special anniversary the season begins with the I Will Always Love You music festival to celebrate the art of songwriting Dollywood is also adding a new restaurant and parking lot as part of a multi-year expansion meanwhile General Motors could soon invest billions in the US Trump said yesterday GM wants to invest $60 billion in the US economy the timeline of any proposed spending is unclear for now and this comes after his meeting with CEO Mary Bara yesterday uh that's Wednesday and this is amid escalating us tariffs Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard letnik have said they want the Auto industry to move more assembly and production to the US a GM spokesperson said yesterday the company shares quote president Trump's goals of a strong and competitive American manufacturing base and economy the European Parliament has banned Huawei obious from entering its buildings a spokesperson called it a precautionary measure and it comes amid an investigation of suspected bribery that could have helped the Chinese Tech Giant the Belgian prosecutors said the alleged corruption and it had taken place very discreetly since 2021 it involved disguising bbery as business and lobbying and payments with expensive gifts like uh meals as well and travel this was in exchange for supporting certain political views hundreds of us meat plants granted access to China in 2020 are set to lose export eligibility threatening around5 billion dollar in trade to the world's largest Meat Market registrations are set to expire on Sunday China has not responded to repeated requests from US Agencies to renew them the US was China's third largest meat supplier last year after Brazil and arent Ina accounting for 590,000 tons of total Imports in phase one of the trade deal signed in 2020 during the first Trump Administration Beijing pledged to boost its purchases of us goods and services if China breaks the deal the loss would be a hard blow for us meat exporters Tesla says it could be impacted by retaliatory tariffs in respond to president Trump's tariff policy a letter to us trade representative Jameson Greer lays out how it believes a trade war will hurt us manufacturers and Tesla's operations the company says us trade policy needs to take into account limitations in the domestic supply chain in particular Tesla notes EVs and lithium ion batteries which it says are hard to Source in the US the letter from the Elon Musk lead electric car company is unsigned the EU is set to increase tariffs on us whiskey by up to 50% starting April 1st and president Trump has threatened a 20 200% tariff on EU alcoholic products in return and to's international correspondent David VZ reports from Paris president Trump has threatened a 200% tariff on wine champagne and other alcoholic products from France and other EU countries in a post on Truth social Trump said this comes in response to the EU imposing a quote nasty 50% tariff on Whiskey this latest escalation in trade attentions follows the eu's decision to impose countermeasures on us steel and aluminium tariffs the new tariffs targeting $28 billion worth of us Goods will take effect in stages starting in April according to Christoff Buu Secretary of one unions in South France the new tariff is yet another blow for one producers if we add all the issues we have been encountering lately these new tariffs come on top of climatic hazards a slowing economy the geopolitical context and the drop in our customers purchasing power this will put us in an even worse position he hopes both Europe and the US will reconsider their decisions the US is a mature market for wine meaning consumers are familiar with the diversity of our production these are mid-range to high-end products with significant added value so we are in a tug of war and the consequences on both sides could be severe analysts want that these tra disputes could further destabilize Global markets and increase the risk of a recession in Europe the potential tariffs have already impacted financial markets with shares in major European beverage companies declining one Trader from one of those companies told me yesterday of the record that if Trump's 200% tariffs were implemented it would be a fatal blow to the high-end French alcohol Market particularly for conyac and champagne which rely heavily on exports one reason for this is that these alcohol producers are already facing tariffs from China due to the EU China trade war and they had been counting on the US market to sell their products David vies ND news Paris and stocks rebounded today a broad rally boosted all three major US stock indexes to solid gains with recently battered Tech related Mega caps enjoying a comeback so every one of the soall Magnificent 7even artificial intelligence related momentum stocks Advanced although six of them remain down for the of the Year S&P 500 and NASDAQ lodged their biggest one-day percentage gain since November 6 the day after US presidential election and that is it on today's business matters